Wire fabric.



H. RICHARDSON & W. LIPPERT.

WIRE FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.3. 19m.

1,261,293 Patented Apr. 2, 1918 2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

H. RICHARDSON '& w. LiPPERT.

WIRE FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED AUG-3, 914.

1 98 Patented Apr. 2,1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNITED. @FATES PATENT HENRY RICHARDSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, AND WILLIAM LIPPERT, KENOSI-IA, WISCONSIN; SAID LIPPERT ASSIGNOR 'IO SAID RICHARDSON.

WIRE FABRIC.

Specification of Letters Iatent.

Patented Apr. 2, 1918.

Application filed August 3, 1914. Serial No. 854,650.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HENRY RICHARDSON, a subject of the King of GreatBr-itain, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, and WILLIAM Lrrrnn'r, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kenosha, in the county of Kenosha and State of Wisconsin, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wire Fabrics, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in wire link fabrics of that type extensively used to form bed and couch bottoms, and pertains more particularly to a type of such fabrics which are made of comparatively light wire and wherein the links or units are so formed and connected as to present a high degree of tensional strength, especially in the line of longitudinal strain.

The general object of the invention is to provide an improved, simple and strong link fabric of the light wire type, employing a minimum amount of wire in its manufacture, and readily lending itself to manufacture by comparatively simple and easily performed machine operations.

The bent wire link forming the basis of the present fabric is made of a single piece of wire, the intermediate portion of which is bent Or folded upon itself, thus forming a two-ply body member with a looped end, and the end portions of the wire are preferably extended downwardly at the other end of the link to an extent suficiently to form substantially vertical shoulders or offsets, and are thence directly extended laterally of the body member, one of said end portions forming a cross-arm for connection to an adjacent strand of the fabric and the other end portion being preferably secured to some part or element of the link itself. In some of the forms which we have selected for illustration, the link also includes a'lateral eye on the opposite side of the body member from the cross-arm, which lateral eye is formed a a direct angular extension of one of the shouldered or ofiset portions. The cross-arm and the lateral eye may both be formed from one of the end portions of the wire, or they may be formed from the two end portions of the wire, respectively. An additional feature of improvement resides in a novel form of terminal hook for the free end of the cross-arm; such hook being formed with a substantially vertical shoulder or offset at the base of the hook which bears upon a lateral eye on a laterally adjacent link and 00- operates with the hook proper in resisting the tensional strain on the cross-arm. The individual links are assembled end-to-end to form the longitudinal strands of the fabric by a simple interengagement of the looped end of one link with the opposite end of the next adjacent link, and the terminal hooks or loops of the cross-arn1s are flexibly engaged with the links of an adjacent strand.

In the accompanying drawings we have illustrated our invention in a variety of specificallydilferent forms, all of which, however, embody the basic principle of the invention, and referring thereto- Figures 1, 3, 5, 7 9, 11 and 13 are fragmentary top plan views of several slightly varying forms of our fabric;

Figs. 2, 4t and 6 are perspective details, respectively, of portions of Figs. 1, 3 and 5;

Figs. 8, 10, 12 and 1 1 are perspective details, respectively, of portions of Figs. 7, 9, 11 and 13.

In all of the several embodiments of the invention'illustrated the link is formed of a single piece of wire having its intermediate portion bent or folded upon itself to provide a two-ply body or tension member 5 having a looped end 6 or 6 uniting the limbs of the body member at that end of the link. Furthermore, in all of the forms illustrated exceptingthat of Figs. 5 and 6, the end portions of the wire at the other end of the body member 5 are downwardly bent to form a pair of substantially vertical shoulders or ofisets 7 In the form shown in Figs. 1 and 2, one end portion of the wire is extended laterally of the lower end of one of the offsets 7 to form a cross arm 8, while the other end portion of the wire is similarly ex tended laterally from the lower end of the other offset 7 on the opposite side of the body member 5 and is bent to form a lateral eye 9, the wire being thence continued across the body member 5 and its extreme end secured to the cross arm 8 as by a hook 10.

In the form illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4., the cross-arm 8 is formed the same as in Figs. 1 and 2, but the lateral eye 11 has its free end secured to the body member 5 by a hook 12.

Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate merely a slight modification of Figs. 3 and 4, wherein the cross-arm 8 and lateral eye 11 extend substantially in the plane of the body member 5, and the opposite or looped end 6 of the link is formed with a downward offset for engagement with the inner ends of the crossarm and lateral loop, respectively. It may here be noted that this modification can be carried out through all of the forms of the invention shown except that of Figs. 13 and 14, if desired, it being practically immaterial so far as the results obtained are concerned at which end of the link the downward offset is formed.

It will be noted that in all of the forms thus far described, one end portion of the wire is utilized to form the cross-ar1n and the other to form the secured lateral eye. A fabric having substantially the same structural characteristics can be formed by using one end portion only of the wire to form both the cross-arm and the lateral eye, as illustrated in Figs. 7 to 12 inclusive. In the constructions of Figs. 7 and 8, and 9 and 10, one end portion of the wire is first extended laterally from the lower end of one of the shoulders 7 and bent to form the lateral eye 13, the wire extending thence across the body member 5 to provide the cross-arm 14 as a continuation of one side of the lateral eye 18. The other end portion of the wire is bent laterally from the lower end of the other shoulder 7, as shown at 15, and, as shown in Figs. 7 and 8, its extreme end is formed into a hook 16 that engages the crossarm 1 1-. As shown in Figs. 9 and 10, the extreme end of this end portion of the wire is curled around the cross-arm 14 as shown at 17, this latter connection being somewhat stronger than the hook 16.

The structure of Figs. 11 and 12, differs from that of Figs. 7 and 8 only in that the wire forming the lateral eye 13 is bent in the opposite direction, thereby throwing the lateral arm 14: beyond the shouldered end of the body member 5 and reversing the direction of the securing hook 16 relatively to the laterally bent portion 15 of the wire.

The construction illustrated in Figs. 13 and 1 1 omits the lateral eye. The cross-arm 8 is formed the same in the structures of Figs. 1 to at inclusive, while the other end portion of the wire is extended laterally from the lower end of the shoulder 7 beneath the inner end of the cross-arm 8, as shown at 18 in Fig. 14, and is thence carried up and hooked or curled over the cross-arm as shown at 19.

In the constructions shown in Figs. 1 to 6 and 11 to 1 1 inclusive the outer end portion of the cross arm is carried through the lateral eye or around the body member of a late ally adjacent link and its extreme end is then brought up and hooked over the body of the cross-arm, thus forming a closed and secured loop 20. In Figs. 7 to 10 inclusive we have illustrated a novel form of terminal hook that can be used to advantage on either an integral cross-arm or a separate'crosslink in connection with longitudinal links that are formed with a. loop or eye extending laterally of the body or tension member. ihis novel terminal hook resembles a plain ordinary hook, except that at the base of the hook the wire is bent upward at a rather steep angle to the body of the cross-arm or cross-link on which it is formed, thereby forming a shoulder or hump 21 at thejunction of the hook proper 22 with the member on which it is formed. This shoulder 21 engagesand bears against the outer end of the lateral eye 13, while the hook proper 22 embraces and pulls against the body menr her 5. The tensional st am on the hook is thereby divided or distributed between the shoulder and the hook proper, thus greatly diminishing the liability of the hook to pull or straighten out under strain, and enabling a lighter gage of wire to be used than would be possible with the ordinary plain hook.

In all of the forms shown the links are assembled endwise to form the longitudinal strands by a simple engagement of the looped ends 6 with the shoulders or offsets 7, or of the offset looped ends 6 (Figs. 5 and 6) with the inner ends of the cross-arm Sand lateral eye 11.

Vi e claim: 7

1. A wire link fabric comprising a plurality of linkseach consisting of a single piece of wire bentto form a two-ply tension portion, the plies of which both project laterallyat one extremity of said tension portion, the projection of one of said'plies being extended to form a cross arm, and one end of each link being provided with a vertically disposed offset or shoulder engagingthe op posed end of an adjacent link whereby the links are longitudinally connected together, the cross arm of eachlink being connected to a laterally'adjacent link.

2. A wire link fabric comprising a plurality of links each consisting of single piece of wire bent to form a two-ply tension portion, the plies of which both project laterally at one extremity of said tension portion, the projection of one of said plies being extended to form a cross arm and the other projection being anchored to an element of the link, and one end of each link being provided with a vertically disposed offset or shoulder engaging the opposed end of an adjacent link whereby the links are longitudinally connected together, the cross arm of each link being connected to a laterallv adjacent link. I

3. A wire link fabric comprising a plurality of longitudinally connected links each consisting of a single piece of wire folded upon itself to form two-ply tension portion, said plies at one extremity of the tension portion being bent to form a laterally menses disposed eye and a transversely extending entended laterally in opposite directions,

one of said extensions forming a cross arm and the end of the other extension being ai'ichoreo to an element of the link, the ends of said cross arm being connected to laterally adj aeent links.

5. A Wire link fabric comprising a'plurality of links each consisting of a single piece of Wire doubled to form a two-ply tension portion, the plies at one end of said tension portion being bent vertically and then separated and extended laterally at the end of said vertical bend to form a laterally disposed eye and a cross arm both disposed in a plane substantially parallel to but not coincident With the horizontal plane of said tension portion, the free end of one of said lateral extensions being anchored to an element of the link, and the vertical bend of each link being'engaged by the opposed end of a longitudinally adjacent link Whereby the links areconnected longitudinally, and the ends of said cross arms being con .nected to laterally adjacent links.

6. A Wire link fabric including a plu- *ality-of links, each formed of a single piece of Wire, the intermediate portion of which is folded upon itself to form a two-ply body member With a looped end, and the end portions of which are extended downwardly at the other end of the link to form substan 'tially vert al shoulders or offsets and are thence directly extended laterally of the body member in opposite directions, one of said end portions being bent to form a lateral eye on one side of said body member and a cross-arm connection on the other side ofsaid body member to an adjacent strand of the fabric, and the other end portion having its free end secured to an element of the link; said links being assembled with their shouldered and looped ends engaged With each other to form the longitudinal strands of the fabric and With the outer ends of their respective cross-arms engaged with the lateral eyes of the links of an adj acent strand.

7. A Wire link fabric including a plurality of bent Wire links, each formed With a body member and a lateral eye and connected end-to-end to form the longitudinal strands of the fabric, and cross-connecting members between adjacent strands, each having a terminal hook engaged With the body member of a laterally adjacent link and a shoulder or hump on the base or innor end of said hook engaged with the eye of said laterally adjacent link.

8. A Wife link fabric including a plurality of links, each formed of a single piece of Wire bent to provide a body member, a lateral eye on one side of said body member and a cross-arm on the other side of said body member having at its free end a hook formed with a shoulder or hump at its base or inner end; said links being connected end'wise to form the longitudinal strands of the fabric and with the hooks and shoulders of their respective cross-arms engaged With the body members and lateral eyes respectively of the links of an adjacent strand.

9ils a neu article of manufacture, a 'wire fabric link formed of a single piece of Wire intermediately bent to form a two ply tension portion having its two plies united by cross connection at one end, said plies at the other extremity of the tension portion being extended laterally to form a laterally disposed eye on one side of said link and a cross arm projecting transversely on the other side of the link, and one extremity of said tension portion having a two-ply vertical offset or shoulder adapted to be engaged by the tension portion of a longitudinally adjacent link.

10. As a new article of manufacture, a Wire fabric link formed of a single piece of wire doubled intermediately to provide a two-ply tension portion, the plies of which both project laterally at one extremity of the tension portion and one of said projections being extended to form a transverse cross arm, one end of each link being provided with a vertically disposed offset or shoulder between the tension portion and the lateral projections, adapted to be engaged by the opposed end of a longitudinally adjacent link;

ll. a new article of manufacture, a

HENRY RICHARDSON. WILLIAM LIPPERT.

Witnesses SAMUEL N. POND, A. G. LATIMER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C. V 

